Robert Leaf, PhD

Biography

I joined the Division of Coastal Sciences in the School of Ocean Science and Engineering in 2012 and has interest in fishery science and and computer-intensive modeling approaches. The goals of these analyses are to understand the biological and ecosystem processes that determine population dynamics and to incorporate this understanding for effective conservation and management strategies. I am primarily interested in working on applied problems of living marine resources and threatened and endangered species. I received my PhD in Fishery and Wildlife Sciences from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2010. There I studied how life history characteristics of individuals in harvested populations are altered under size-selective exploitation. As a post-doctoral researcher in NOAA’s “Fisheries and the Environment” program, I examined how phytoplankton bloom phenology determines recruitment patterns in northeast Atlantic ground fishes. My current work involves assessment of fisheries and populations, primarily in the Gulf of Mexico but also in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.

Research Interests

My research is concerned with understanding and modeling biological systems at two levels: individual life-history and population dynamics. At the population level I am interested in understanding the environmental drivers that influence population dynamics of commercially harvested fishes and invertebrates. I use simulation and statistical models to explore how alternative harvest strategies impact resilience and sustainability.